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Nova: Annihilation
Nova: Annihilation is a 2010 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Richard Rider. It is the first theatrical Nova film, while also tying into the Marvel Movie Universe. Directed by Martin Campbell, the film stars Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Alexa Vega and Ron Perlman as well as Jim Carrey, Glenn Close, Vin Diesel and Manu Bennett.'' Annihilation'' was scored by James Newton Howard. Plot Teenager Richard Rider (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) falls into a depression when his father dies until he runs into his childhood sweetheart Aya Ayala (Alexa Vega). When Richard remarks that he's always wanted to skate through San Francisco, Aya manages to get him to get him a skateboard so he could fullfill his wish. As Richard prepares to skate, an even unfolds high above Earth which will change his destiny forever. Rhomann Dey (Paul Bettany), a Nova, is patrolling the area when his ship is attacked by Annihilus (Manu Bennett), a rogue alien warrior. Annihilus informs Rhomann Dey that he has come looking for “the Xandarian Worldmind” but Rhomann Dey refuses to give it up. He manages to defeat the villain by blasting him with his pkinetic force, knocking him out of the spacecraft. However, the ship is badly damaged and plunges to Earth. Richard detects a mysterious energy entering the area where he is driving. Against the police's orders, he goes to investigate. At the crash site, Rhomann Dey lies wounded on the ground and knows that he will soon die. He instructs his helmet to find a worthy successor to his role as a Nova. The helmet flies into the seat of Richard's car and teleports him to the crash site, leaving the unmanned craft to crash into the ground. Rhomann Dey explains to Richard the greater role he now plays in the universe before dying. Scared and confused, Richard takes the helmet and buries Rhomann Dey's body and ship. When he is found by policemen, Aya is puzzled by Richard's distant demeanor. Richard returns home and ponders that to do. That night, he finds himself unable to sleep, when suddenly, he is attacked by two more alien beings, also Novas. They capture him and take Richard to the planet Xandar to meet the Centurion Nova Prime herself, Irani Rael (Glenn Close). He learns that those who “collected” him are Rocket (voiced by Jim Carrey), a Nova drill sergeant, and Thanos (Ron Perlman), a respected senior officer who was a close friend of Rhomann Dey. Thanos is openly confused as to why Rhomann Dey appointed one such as Richard to be his successor. On Xandar, Richard is brought before Irani, headed by the Nova Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), and learns more about the origins of the universe and the Novas. The Corps is currently in the process of investigating Rhomann Dey's death and trying to find the one responsible. Thanos, who was the last person Rhomann Dey spoke to via radio before the crash, has a recording of the ship's transmission. However, it only captures Rhomann Dey's last message and doesn't tell them anything about what brought his ship down. Richard reveals the location of Rhomann Dey's body and ship, as the Corps hope to use the on-flight data recorder to learn what transpired in the ship's final moments. Richard is given a crash course in being a Nova by Thanos, Rocket, Drax (Jason Momoa), yet another Nova. He learns about combat and how to use the helmet's power to build his armor, produce energy, but more importantly, learns how to fly. Richard and Thanos return to Earth to investigate the crash site. They recover the lost ship and Thanos reacts with horror upon reviewing the data recorder, although Richard doesn't understand. They return to Xandar where Thanos reveals to Irani and other Novas what happened to Rhomann Dey; he was murdered by Annihilus. When Richard inquires as to who Annihilus is, it is revealed that Annihilus once lived in a peacefull planet until one day, a squad of Skrull invaded and slaughtered his people, with Annihilus being the only survivor. The Skrull's ships were then deactivated and hidden in the Negative Zone, as it was uninhabited and it was unlikely anyone would ever find them. Even if they did, they would need the Xandarian Worldmind to power them up. Annihilus, following the killing of his people, was left to wander deep space for many years, and over that course of time, went insane and became determined to get revenge on the Novas for not helping his planet. They deduce that Annihilus has located the Skrull fleet and is hunting for the Worldmind in order to reactivate them. Eventually, they come to the conclusion that Rhomann Dei had hidden the Wolrdmind within his Nova helmet itself. However, the helmet is nowhere to be found. Thanos and Rocket return to Earth to confront Richard, thinking that he kept the helmet for himself, but he insists that he doesn't and that he gave it to Zan Philo (Sharlto Copley). Soon, the trio come to realize that Zan Philo is actually a spy working with Annihilus. Richard persuades Rocket to take him back to Xandar with he and Thanos so that he can aid them somehow, knowing that he was partially responsible for whatever Annihilus is about to do. He joins them on board a flight to the Negative Zone to investigate, where they encounter Zan Philo. During the battle, he reveals that Annihilus has already got what he needed from the helmet. Thanos takes his sword and cuts Zan Philo' neck off, allowing Richard to reclaim his helmet and blast Zan Philo out of the ship to his death. The trio then race back to Xandar with this new information. Annihilus, upon learning of Zan Philo' death at Richard's hands, decides to retaliate by launching an asault on Earth. He locates Richard's hometown, San Francisco, and invades with his army of Chitauri. Richard, Thanos, Drax, Rocket and Groot all launch a counter attack and a city wide battle ensues between the two rival factions. During the battle, Richard is reunited with Aya, forcing him to reveal his true identity as a Nova to her. Carl, meanwhile, joins the fight by flying with a fleet of fighter jets and bombaring the Chitauri (although Richard and Aya must first convince them not to attack the other Corps members). However, the arrogant naval officer, Carol Danvers (Yvonne Strahovsky) stationed on a battleship nearby, gives the order to launch a nuclear warhead at San Francisco. Richard spots it while he duels with Annihilus and flies up to intercept it. Annihilus pursues him however and their fight continues. Richard manages to use his helmet's power to grab hold of both the missile and Atnnihilus and fly into the sky, where he launches both of them into Earth's atmosphere. The rocket detonates, destroying Annihilus. With the Chitauri defeated, the Novas prepare to return to Xandar. Richard finally kisses Aya. They agree to try out a long distance relationship and Richard promises to commute whenever he can. A disgraced Danvers is discharged from the Navy and tasked to the Research Department as all the Nova reunite on Xandar. In a mid-credits scene, Danvers is at a coffee shop when she encounters a man named Walter Lawson (Zachary Quinto). In a post-credits scene, a news reporter for the Daily Bugle is interviewing a number of people who witnessed the battle. Amongst them are scientist Jackson Day (William Fichtner) and a teenager named Sam Alexander (Dylan O'Brien), who was previously rescued during the battle by Richard. Cast *'Thomas Brodie-Sangster '''as '''Richard Rider' *'Alexa Vega '''as '''Aya Ayala' *'Ron Perlman '''as '''Thanos' *'Jim Carrey '''as '''Rocket (voice)' *'Jason Momoa '''as '''Drax' *'Vin Diesel '''as '''Groot (voice)' *'Paul Bettany '''as '''Rhomann Dey' *'Manu Bennett '''as '''Annihilus' *'Sharlto Copley '''as '''Zan Philo' *'Glenn Close '''as '''Irani Rael' '''Additionally, '''Yvonne Strahovski has a cameo as Carol Danvers, '''while '''Samuel L. Jackson '''briefly appears as General '''Nick Fury. Zachary Quinto '''has a short appearence as '''Walter Lawson, while both William Fichtner '''and '''Dylan O'Brien '''appears as '''Jackson Day '''and '''Sam Alexander '''respectively. '''Stan Lee '''has a short cameo as '''Uatu the Watcher '''in the opening and '''Seth MacFarlane '''has a voice cameo as '''Howard the Duck. Production Paramount and Marvel Comics were putting together their ideas for the Marvel Movie Universe, which began in 2008 with the release of The Invincible Iron Man. Fan reaction was positive and online research revealed that fans were itching for either a movie debut of Nova. In late 2009, it was decided that a Nova film would happen as part of the new universe. Fans became excited by the announcement of a new Nova film which promised to make justice to the Nova mythology. The first thing revealed was a poster for the film, showing the Nova symbol, with the title Nova: Annihilation. It was then confirmed that this was the name of the new film, which was being written and cast at the time. When Thanos was announced to be appearing in the film, many begin to especulate that he would be a villain, but when annoucements confirmed that Thanos would be a part of the Nova Corps, fans begin to doubt about the quality of the character. However, writers decided at the start of production not to use Thanos as a villain in the first "cosmic" film because they found him to be one of the more interesting Marvel villains and wanted to save him and build up the character, even with him not being a member of the Nova Corps in the comics. They decided not to use Galactus, thinking he was a far superior threath for just one hero. They then found that they were all interested in using the Chitauri in the film, but also wished to see an overall antagonist who would be the big bad. As soon as someone suggested Annihilus, everyone loved the idea and got to work on putting him in the story. The writers also threw around the idea of using a Nova other than Richrd Rider as it's hero, considering Sam Alexander. However, they decide that fans first wanted to see Richard Rider "done right" and that they could introduce other Novas in later films. Casting Thomas Brodie-Sangster was the first and only real choice for Richard Rider. Campbell stated that he would occassionally look into other actors, but always came back to Sangster. Alexa Vega was previously considered one of the top choices for the Aya Ayala role. Dwayne Johnson, a comic book fan who previously played the Black Adam in the Shazam film, lobbied to play Drax. It came down to him and Jason Momoa, but it was decided that Johnson' audition made Drax more human (even though the character is an alien) and he was chosen. Momoa himself praised the choice and stated that he knew Johnson would go far in the role. When Glenn Close was cast as Irani Rael, she suggested Jim Carrey for the role of Rocket. Carrey was approached and promised to consider it. The other actors who were in the running were Seth MacFarlane, David Tennant, Bradley Cooper and most notably Gary Oldman. However, Oldman was already cast as Klaw in the Ant-Man film, stating he didn't want to cause confusion to the audience by portraying two different characters. Carrey then declared that he was interested in the role after having talked with Close about it. After he was cast, Seth MacFarlane was secretly chose by Campbell to have a top-secret cameo as Howard the Duck. Ron Perlman had always been the most popular choice for Thanos. Perlman also had experience with comicbook movies, having portrayed Hellboy in two films. Apparently, no one but Perlman was considered for Thanos. It was also Perlman who told Paul Bettany to audition for Rhomann Dey, a role he was successful in getting. The last big casting announcement was that of Annihilus. Unlike other actors, there was no public word about Manu Bennett taking the role. Actors such as Hugo Weaving, Ving Rhames and Kevin Spacey were considered, but Weaving passed because he considered it typecasting, and Spacey passed because he was already playing a comic book supervillain in the form of Kang the Conqueror in the latter Fantastic Four film. Weaving was the only one who remained in the running until he decided to take a break from mainstream films. He later portrayed Dr. Faustus in Captain America: Man out of Time, while Manu Bennett was cast as Atrocitus based on his vocal performances. Reception The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. Praise was directed at the special effects, interesting story and Thomas Brodie-Sangster's starring performance. One near universal agreement amongst critics was that the film was like a "space-opera Spider-Man". Tobey Maguire himself praised the film, jokingly calling it "the only and definitive space opera Spider-Man movie." Other aspects which were warmly received were the chemistry between Sangster and Vega, the musical score, and the supporting performances from Ron Perlman and Dwayne Johnson. Sequels Nova: Annihilation was followed by two sequels; Nova Corps, in which Richard Rider teams up with Sam Alexander to hunt down wanted criminal Ronan the Accuser, and Nova: Light Templairs, in which Adam Warlock, a Elder of the Universe who organized the Novas in the Guardians of the Galaxy, returns to the present to recruit Richard and Sam in battling Thanos, who has overthrown the Novas and was reduced mad once wielding the Infinity Gauntlet. Category:Marvel Movie Universe Category:Draft227 Category:Movies